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“If we could get into the house, we could do an estate clearance and sell off everything, all the art, the furniture, everything, and you girls have complete plausible deniability,” Arlo says with a sinister smirk. “When they show back up, all the money will have been donated to charity.”
“Ha,” Tallulah barks. “They’d hate that.”
“Pre-plastic surgery photos,” I all but shout.
“Ohhhh,” all of the guys coo in chorus, at the same time.
“Mom?” Tallulah asks.
“And Dad,” I say evilly.
“Your dad’s had plastic surgery?” Carson asks, the shock obvious in his tone.
“Yep, and if we can get into the house, we have pictures of them both,” I say excitedly.
“I think we should do something a bit more impactful,” Arlo announces, his voice low.
“Like what?” my sister asks.
“I think we should take over Archibald Inc,” he says, with a dark grin.
For a moment we all stay silent and just stare at him. Then suddenly everyone speaks at once, the sound becoming a cacophony of noise that drowns out any one person.
“Shut up,” I shout above the din, silencing everyone. “Arlo what do you mean? How would we do that?”
“What do you know about your great-grandfather’s business?” he asks.
“Practically nothing. I wasn’t given any information about the business, because the idea was that my husband would run the company,” I say, not bothering to hide my derision from my voice.
“Such an asshole, chauvinistic move,” Tallulah mutters.
“Well after you mentioned revenge yesterday, I did a little research. Archibald Inc is actually split up into shares. The majority shareholder with fifty-one percent was your great-grandfather and his shares were part of your inheritance, and will now pass to whoever inherits in your stead. But the other forty-nine percent of the business is owned by various individuals and companies. I say we buy as many as we can, all forty-nine percent if we can, and then we force your parents out,” he says calmly, like he’s not talking about basically taking over my family’s company.
A silence falls over the group as we all process what Arlo just suggested. This is so much more than the petty, annoying revenge I’d imagined. I thought we’d piss them off, maybe embarrass and inconvenience them, but what Arlo’s suggesting is corporate takeover. It’s serious and real, and I have no idea if I should laugh or scream.
Part of me is horrified at the idea of forcing my dad out of his family’s business, but the rest of me is elated. It would be the ultimate fuck you, the absolute perfect revenge on him. So much of who he is, is tied up with the Archibald name, and for him to be fired from his job in the family business. Well let’s just say he’d lose his mind.
“What do you think?” Tallulah asks.
Lifting my gaze to hers, I can see the uncertainty I’m feeling reflected back at me and I’m glad that it’s not just me who’s not entirely sure about this plan.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I thought we’d just piss them off, but taking over the business…”
“We wouldn’t be taking over the business, even if we managed to get all the remaining shares. Whoever inherits your great-grandfather’s shares would still be the majority shareholder. But if we can get enough shares, we can certainly cause some problems,” Carson, says, his thumb rubbing reassuring circles on my thigh.
“Who inherits now?” Watson asks.
“I don’t know, I was never told,” I tell him.
“I’d guess probably our grandfather?” Tallulah says.
“I doubt it, Great-grandfather’s letter to me basically said he didn’t think either Grandfather or Dad deserved it. If I had to guess, I bet it’ll go to some distant relative, someone he deemed as worthy,” I say derisively.
“What happens if someone finds out we’re trying to buy up all the shares?” Tallulah asks Arlo, twisting in his lap to face him.
“They won’t,” he assures her. “If we decide to do this, we’ll cover our tracks, we’ll set up multiple offshore, shell corporations and hire some old money established law firms to act on our behalf. It won’t be traceable back to us unless we decide to reveal who we are.”
“And you know how to do that?” she asks him.
